Stirling Energy Systems expands its offices as solar efforts ramp up - Austin Business Journal:

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The Scottsdale company, which receivef a $100 million investment last yearfrom Dublin-base NTR plc, is moving quickly to capturde a segment of the utility-scalse solar market with its Stirling engins technology. The company opened its new 37,000-square-footg office in early May. It has hire about 100 employees this year and expectsd to add 60 to 80 more by the end of the for a totalof 180, said CEO Steve who joined the firm last year as part of NTR’se investment. “We’ve always liked the solar and this was a good he said.
The company is base on a nearly 200-year-old engine design, whic h operates through the expansion and contraction of Stirling usesa 40-foot mirrored dish to focus the sun’e rays to heat hydrogen gas to 1,400 degreees Fahrenheit. The gas expands, moving a piston and powering the engine. As the gas cools, it is movedc out of the pistoj chamber and back to where it will be reheatedf bythe sun. The company had been operatingb in the Valleysince 1996, but NTR’sx investment has pushed it to develop the technology more It has two power-purchase agreements: one with San Diego Gas Electric for between 300 and 750 megawatts at a site in Imperiall Valley, Calif.
, and one with Southern California Edison for 500 to 900 megawatts in the Mohave Desert. Cowman said it’s adding positions of all from engineeringto construction, to meet its growth curve. To handlse project management, NTR founded Tessera Solar earlierr this year to developthe utility-scale with Stirling providing the equipment. Rampin g up both project development and construction has required capital and people to servde what the company believes will be one of the largesft solar markets inthe world, said Jim Barry, CEO of NTR. “Wwe believe the U.S. will be the globalk leader in renewable energy, and that will happen in the next few he said.
NTR, founded 30 years ago to operats Ireland’s toll roads, has expanded into a numbe r of renewable energy andrecycling Stirling’s technology — which offers an alternative to photovoltaicd systems, as well as a different take on concentrated sola power — has a good base in Arizonsa that can serve markets throughout the Southwest, Barruy said. In addition to hiring, the company is looking at potentiak sites in the Valley to houseea 60-dish, 1.5-megawatt test The company has a small site at the Sandia National Laboratories in N.M., but is hoping to find a larger site to providwe a location to bringh clients.
It has run into challenges securing local permits for a site and findinbg a location that can be tied into theelectrid grid, officials said. The compangy could be a boon for Arizonas in more ways than simply providing It is using auto component suppliers to build itsengine parts, and officials are talking with those suppliersa about the possibility of locating facilitiea in the Southwest to handle the bulk of Stirling’d projects, at least for the first few years, Cowman said.
“If you can build your manufacturingh close to yourend facilities, that’s goin to benefit everyone,” he Stirling is one of the solar companies that couldr provide a base for other manufacturers to land in the said Barry Broome, president and CEO of the Greatef Phoenix Economic Council. “This is a good example,” he said. “It’a got a small number of peoplw and it hopesto expand, and it coulf help its suppliers relocate Stirling’s expansion in Arizona depends on state policies. Other states are offering manufacturing and Arizona’s effort to develop such enticements is miref in budget problems.
“We really want to grow our businesesin Arizona, but we need those incentives,” Cowmanm said.